You are here

About the author

Richard Carleton Hacker

Contributing Wine, Spirits, and Cigars Editor

Richard Carleton Hacker is an international writer and photographer specializing in spirits, wines, cigars, and related luxury lifestyles. In addition to having authored 11 books published in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and Russia, he is a long-time contributing editor for numerous national magazines, including Robb Report, for which he has written since 1995. He is also a popular keynote speaker on whiskies and cigars for corporations such as Ritz-Carlton, Alfred Dunhill, and Blancpain, and is a judge for the prestigious annual San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

A lifetime member of the Scotch whisky industry’s exclusive Keeper of the Quaich honorary society (he is one of fewer than 200 people worldwide to hold the coveted title of Master of the Quaich), he has also been inducted into the Ordre des Coteaux de Champagne, and was knighted in Germany. More of his writings and adventures can be found at www.richardcarletonhacker.com.

Rarely in the world of Cognac has history repeated itself so dramatically as with the discovery and introduction of Louis XIII Rare Cask 42,6, for this is only the second time in the 139-year history...

It is well known that Kentucky’s master distillers are fiercely independent, each claiming that his bourbon is the best. But when hardship strikes one of their own, they band together like long-lost...

Every year on May 1, a line forms outside the cellar door of Penfolds Winery in the South Australia town of Magill for the launch of Penfolds Grange, Australia’s more-than-stellar answer to the best...

Zino Davidoff demonstrated his independence in the summer of 1989, when the Cuban government demanded 51 percent ownership of his namesake cigar company. Zino responded by publicly burning 130,000 of...

Considering the process for producing Scotch whisky, which is crafted by hand and then aged for years and often decades, it is not surprising that change usually comes slowly to the industry. However...

One would think that the multiple-award-winning chef, author, and restaurateur Thomas Keller’s similarly multiple-award-winning French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley had attained perfection. It is...